Our  Peril  in  the  East 


Resolutions  ol  the 

War  Committee  of 

The  Union  League  Club  of  Chicago 

setting  forth  the  menace  to  the  safety 
of  the  United  States  which  lies  in  the 
consolidation  by  the  Central  Powers 
of  their  conquests  in  the  East,  and 
urging  the  vital  necessity  of  a  peace 
which  not  only  forces  the  liberation  of 
the  Slavic  peoples  now  held  under  the 
German  and  Austrian  yoke,  but  pro¬ 
vides  for  their  establishment  as  inde¬ 
pendent  states  which  will  forever  block 
the  pan-German  program  for  world 
domination, 

and 

Editorial  comments  thereon  by  leading 
newspapers  of  the  City  of  Chicago. 


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in  2017  with  funding  from 

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/c. .  i  ‘■n  i 

"or  *-i 

Resolutions 

Adopted  Aug.  8,  1918  by  the  War  Committee  of 
The  Union  League  Club  of  Chicago: 

Recalling  that — 

The  world  war  was  begun  by  the 
Central  Powers  largely  because  of 
their  ambition  for  conquest  in  the 
Near  East,  and 

Realizing  that — 

The  Central  Powers,  by  the  con¬ 
quests  thus  far  achieved  in  Russia, 
Roumania  and  Serbia  have  prac¬ 
tically  doubled  their  area  and  pop¬ 
ulation,  and 

Recognizing  that — 

If  the  Central  Powers  are  allowed 
to  keep  and  develop  these  con¬ 
quests  they  will  organize  a  mili¬ 
tary  despotism  which  will  menace 
the  security  of  the  United  States 
and  all  freedom  loving  nations,  the 
War  Committee  of  the  Union 
League  Club  of  Chicago  there¬ 
fore, 


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Resolves — 

That  it  hereby  puts  itself  on  record 
as  against  any  treaty  of  peace 
which  does  not  force  the  Central 
Powers  to  release  the  territories 
they  have  gained  by  conquest  and 
intrigue  in  the  Near  East,  and  fur¬ 
ther  urges  that  no  peace  should  be 
regarded  as  satisfactory  to  the 
Government  of  the  United  States 
and  its  associates  in  the  war  which 
does  not  fulfill  the  just  aspirations 
of  the  smaller  national  groups 
long  held  against  their  will  under 
the  domination  of  the  Central 
Powers,  and  be  it  further 

Resolved — 

That  the  War  Committee  of  the 
Union  League  Club  of  Chicago 
hereby  directs  its  Editorial  Com¬ 
mittee  to  begin  at  once  the  prep- 


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aration  and  dissemination  of  mate¬ 
rial  to  inform  the  public  and  crys- 
talize  opinion  in  favor  of  the 
recent  official  pronouncements  to 
this  effect  of  our  Government  and 
of  the  Versailles  conference  of 
representatives  of  the  Allied  Na¬ 
tions. 


Significant  Resolutions 

Everting  Post ,  Tuesday ,  August  13th,  1918 

The  war  activities  committee  of  the  Union 
League  Club  has  adopted  resolutions  demanding 
the  liberation  of  Austria-Hungary’s  subject  peo¬ 
ples  and  the  restoration  of  all  territory  taken  by 
the  central  empires  in  eastern  Europe. 

The  Union  League  Club  has  developed  into  one 
of  the  most  helpful  and  intelligent  propaganda 
agencies  in  the  country  since  its  war  committee 
entered  the  field  of  public  education  and  inspira¬ 
tion.  It  has  led  in  a  clear-visioned  and  broad 
understanding  of  the  issues  involved  in  the  great 
struggle,  and  has  done  invaluable  work  in  pro¬ 
moting  an  informed  sentiment  for  the  prosecution 
of  the  war  to  complete  victory. 

It  is  significant  of  the  progress  of  opinion  that 
it  should  now  speak  so  emphatically  for  the 
emancipation  of  Europe  from  the  Prussian  yoke 
and  that  it  should  recognize  the  fundamental  im¬ 
portance  of  dismembering  the  German-Magyar 
monstrosity  that,  under  the  Hapsburgs,  serves  the 
will  of  the  Hohenzollerns.  The  Post  has  been 
insistent  in  urging  that  the  Prussian  menace  to 


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world  peace  and  security  can  be  ended  finally  only 
if  Berlin’s  vassal  ally  is  disintegrated  and  the 
Slavic,  Roumanian  and  Italian  national  groups 
liberated  from  alien  oppression.  With  this 
achievement  must  go  the  removal  of  Prussia’s 
strangling  fingers  from  the  throats  of  Russia,  the 
Baltic  States,  Poland  and  the  Balkans. 

The  Union  League  Club  in  espousing  this  pro¬ 
gram  will  be  of  immense  service.  It  is  vital  that 
Americans  should  understand  the  danger  of  a 
compromise  peace  and  the  necessity  for  maintain¬ 
ing  the  war  until  the  enemy  is  deprived  of  all 
spoils  and  all  power. 


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America’s  Interest  in  Middle  Europe 

Chicago  Tribune ,  Thursday ,  August  15th ,  79/ 5 

The  recognition  by  Great  Britain  of  the 
Czecho-Slovaks  as  an  allied  nation  has  been  well 
won  by  the  Bohemians.  We  hope  the  United 
States  will  take  similar  action. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  world  war  if  any  one 
had  asked  that  the  United  States  enter  into  a 
struggle  to  free  Poland,  Bohemia,  or  Jugo-Slavia 
from  Austrian  domination,  the  reply  would  have 
been  a  prompt  if  not  profane  negative.  The 
thought  that  American  boys  should  be  asked  to 
fight  and  die  in  Europe  to  win  political  advantage 
for  peoples  of  central  Europe  would  have  been 
intolerable. 

That  thought  is  intolerable  now.  The  sacri¬ 
fice  of  American  lives  on  such  issues  might  be 
called  altruism,  but  it  would  be  a  political  crime. 
Polish  and  Bohemian  patriots  would  not  ask  the 
vicarious  sacrifice. 

Nevertheless,  American  soldiers  are  fighting  for 
the  freedom  of  the  Poles,  and  Czecho-Slovaks, 
and  the  Slavs  of  Serbia  and  southern  Austria- 
Hungary,  and  practical  statesmanship  approves. 


We  see  more  clearly  than  we  did  in  1914  the 
real  significance  of  the  European  conflict  and  we 
realize  that  America  is  substantially  and  directly 
involved  in  the  establishment  of  a  condition  after 
the  war  which  shall  insure  a  durable  peace  and 
the  removal  of  a  threat  to  our  welfare  and 
security. 

What  is  our  interest  in  the  establishment  of 
free  Polish,  Bohemian,  Jugo-Slav  nations?  It  is 
our  interest  in  breaking  the  spine  of  that  gigantic 
imperial  enterprise  which  the  pan-German  mili¬ 
tarism  hoped  to  erect  with  the  sword  of  conquest 
and  cement  with  the  blood  of  the  weak.  A  free 
Poland,  Bohemia,  and  Jugo-Slavia  will  make  a 
bulwark  of  freedom  across  Mittel-Europa,  and 
with  the  passing  of  that  grandiose  dream  of  Prus¬ 
sian  domination,  the  free  peoples  of  western 
Europe  will  breathe  again  and  we  may  look  for¬ 
ward  to  international  relations  regulated  by  our 
common  ideals  of  peaceful  progress. 

America  is  vitally  interested  in  procuring  a 
peace  that  will  be  guaranteed  by  peaceful  nations 
and  guaranteed  against  the  threat  of  imperialist 
militarism.  We  are  vitally  interested  in  setting 
up  the  counterpoise  of  independent  peoples  against 


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that  peril  until  the  German  people  have  thrown 
off  the  moral  and  physical  control  of  the  military- 
aristocratic  caste  and  the  influence  of  the  imperial¬ 
ist  idea  of  their  destiny. 

The  resolutions  of  the  war  committee  of  the 
Union  League  Club  in  favor  of  recognizing  the 
aspirations  of  these  heroic  peoples  seem  to  us 
timely  and  founded  on  a  true  perception  of  the 
American  interest  in  central  European  conditions 
of  peace.  There  are,  of  course,  idealistic  consider¬ 
ations  which  would  incline  us  to  favor  freedom  for 
all  oppressed  and  aspiring  peoples.  But  certainly  no 
civilian  safely  at  home  has  a  moral  right  to  ask 
other  men  to  die  for  his  ideal  conceptions.  In  the 
question  of  Polish  and  Slavic  independence,  how¬ 
ever,  our  sympathy  for  the  cause  of  freedom  runs 
parallel  to  our  practical  interest.  America  is 
fighting  for  a  secure  peace  for  herself  as  well  as 
for  her  pacific  allies. 


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The  Czecho-Slovak  Nation 

Evening  Post ,  Thursday,  August  15th,  1918 

The  Czecho-Slovak  nation  has  come  into  being 
with  the  recognition  of  Great  Britain,  France  and 
Italy  and  the  sympathy  of  the  United  States.  It 
has  organized  itself  under  a  national  council  and 
it  is  represented  by  three  well-equipped  armies 
fighting  for  the  cause  of  democracy  on  three 
fronts. 

Its  people  no  longer  profess  allegiance  to  the 
Hapsburgs.  The  yoke  of  Austria  has  been  thrown 
off  in  purpose  and  they  are  the  open  enemy  of  the 
dual  monarchy  and  Germany.  Their  territory 
is  still  under  control  of  the  oppressor,  but  they 
are  in  revolt,  and  only  martial  law  maintains  the 
semblance  of  Vienna’s  authority  in  Bohemia  and 
Moravia. 

Thus  the  disintegration  of  Austria-Hungary 
has  begun  and  the  allied  countries  are  of  one  mind 
in  the  determination  that  it  shall  be  carried  on 
until  the  political  patchwork  that  has  served  so 
well  the  ambitions  of  predatory  monarchs  is  de¬ 
stroyed. 

The  achievement  of  this  end,  made  just  by 
every  consideration  of  the  rights  of  subjugated 


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peoples  and  the  ideals  of  freedom  and  democracy 
for  which  we  are  fighting,  means  the  death  blow 
to  the  pan-German  conspiracy.  It  will  deprive 
Prussia  of  her  most  useful  agent,  her  essential  in¬ 
strument  for  control  of  the  Balkans  and  the  high¬ 
way  to  Bagdad.  It  will  dissipate  the  dream  of  a 
middle  Europe.  It  is  as  necessary  to  a  complete 
victory  over  the  Potsdam  plotters  against  world 
peace  as  the  defeat  of  the  kaiser’s  armies  in  France 
and  Flanders. 

A  glance  at  the  map  will  show  what  strategic 
importance  attaches  to  the  territory  of  the  Czecho¬ 
slovaks.  The  mountain  land  of  Bohemia  is  like 
a  clinched  fist  thrust  into  the  ribs  of  Germany. 
It  will  smash  the  schemes  of  Prussia  for  a  con¬ 
solidation  of  weaker  states  if  it  passes  into  the 
control  of  a  people  who  do  not  recognize  the  au¬ 
thority  of  Berlin.  It  will  carry  with  it  the  Slavic 
territory  to  the  east  and  will  be  a  beacon  light 
of  freedom  and  revolt  for  the  people  of  Poland 
and  the  people  of  southern  Slavdom. 

The  United  States  has  yet  to  bring  itself 
abreast  of  the  overseas  democracies  in  its  attitude 
toward  the  Czecho-Slovak  nation.  The  expres¬ 
sion  of  American  sympathy,  recently  given  by  our 


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State  Department,  should  be  followed  by  full  rec¬ 
ognition  of  the  national  council  as  “trustee  for  the 
future  government.”  We  cannot  afford  to  be  less 
bold  and  definite  in  declaring  ourselves  on  this 
issue.  No  further  reason  exists  for  considering 
the  feelings  of  Vienna.  No  hope  remains  of  mak¬ 
ing  a  separate  peace  with  the  dual  monarchy  that 
will  not  be  a  peace  in  the  interests  of  Germany. 
There  is  no  excuse  for  avoiding  any  step  that  will 
hasten  the  downfall  of  the  Hapsburgs.  We  owe 
it  to  the  laree  element  in  our  population  of 
Czecho-Slovak  origin,  as  an  element  that  has  been 
loyal  in  word  and  deed  from  the  first  hour  when 
we  entered  the  war,  to  lend  every  aid  possible  to 
their  blood-kin  in  Europe  in  the  heroic  struggle 
for  emancipation  that  they  are  making. 


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Bohemian  Independence 

Chicago  Journal ,  Thursday ,  August  15th , 

Three  powers  now  have  recognized  the  Czecho¬ 
slovak  nation  as  a  formal  and  independent  ally. 
France  took  the  lead  in  this  work,  as  she  generally 
takes  the  lead  in  anything  requiring  clear-headed 
logic.  Italy  followed.  Now  Britain  has  adopted 
the  same  course  in  very  generous  fashion. 

To  these  three  powers  should  be  joined  a 
fourth,  the  United  States  of  America;  and  the 
quicker  our  recognition  of  Bohemian  independence 
comes,  the  better  alike  for  our  prestige  and  our 
policy. 

If  blood  be  the  price  of  liberty,  the  Czecho¬ 
slovaks  have  paid  in  full.  Within  the  last  twen¬ 
ty-four  hours,  dispatches  have  been  smuggled  out 
of  Bohemia  telling  of  the  summary  execution  of 
seventy-four  Czech  soldiers,  the  arrest  of  hun¬ 
dreds  of  civilians  and  the  reinforcement  of  the 
German  and  Magyar  garrisons.  Yet  this  is 
merely  the  last  drop  in  the  gory  bucket,  for  tens 
of  thousands  of  Czechs  and  Slovaks  have  been 
hanged,  shot  or  starved  to  death  in  prison  since 
the  war  began. 

If  services  to  freedom  be  the  price,  the  Czecho¬ 
slovaks  have  an  even  clearer  title  to  liberty. 


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Gagged  and  bound  though  they  were,  their  strug¬ 
gles  have  wrecked  the  whole  Hapsburg  empire, 
which  is  held  together  now  solely  by  German 
domination.  They  have  whipped  German  and 
Austro-Hungarian  armies  in  fair  fight.  They  are 
battling  now  on  the  western  front  in  France. 
They  are  rendering  valued  aid  to  Italy.  They 
are  the  chief  force  that  is  rescuing  Russia  from 
the  mixture  of  bolshevism  and  kaiserism,  and 
their  career  in  that  country  is  an  epic  the  like 
of  which  never  has  been  seen  before. 

There  is  an  even  stronger  reason  for  recogniz¬ 
ing  Bohemian  independence.  That  independence 
is  necessary  for  the  throttling  of  Prussianism. 
Pore  over  the  map  as  you  will,  you  can  not  figure 
out  a  free  Europe  without  a  free  Bohemia.  That 
mountain  rimmed  tableland  in  the  heart  of  the 
continent  is  the  keystone  of  the  arch  of  central 
and  eastern  European  liberties;  and  while  it  is 
ruled  from  Berlin  or  Vienna,  a  new  bid  for  the 
Pan-German  empire  of  middle  Europe  will  be 
an  ever  present  threat. 

Bohemia  must  have  her  freedom  because  she 
wants  it,  because  she  has  earned  it,  and  because 
that  freedom  is  necessary  to  our  own  safety.  Why 
should  we  delay  in  giving  formal  official  recog¬ 
nition  to  these  plain  facts? 


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